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Getting Ready to Move the Covenant Box

¹ For his own use, David built houses in David's City.^[a] He also prepared a place for God's Covenant Box and put up a tent for it. ^2 (a)Then he said, "Only Levites should carry the Covenant Box, because they are the ones the Lord chose to carry it and to serve him forever." ³ So David summoned all the people of Israel to Jerusalem in order to bring the Covenant Box to the place he had prepared for it. ⁴ Next he sent for the descendants of Aaron and for the Levites. ⁵ From the Levite clan of Kohath came Uriel, in charge of 120 members of his clan; ⁶ from the clan of Merari came Asaiah, in charge of 220; ⁷ from the clan of Gershon, Joel, in charge of 130; ⁸ from the clan of Elizaphan, Shemaiah, in charge of 200; ⁹ from the clan of Hebron, Eliel, in charge of 80; ¹⁰ and from the clan of Uzziel, Amminadab, in charge of 112.

¹¹ David called in the priests Zadok and Abiathar and the six Levites, Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab. ¹² He said to the Levites, "You are the leaders of the Levite clans. Purify yourselves and your fellow Levites, so that you can bring the Covenant Box of the Lord God of Israel to the place I have prepared for it. ¹³ Because you were not there to carry it the first time, the Lord our God punished us for not worshiping him as we should have done."

¹⁴ Then the priests and the Levites purified themselves in order to move the Covenant Box of the Lord God of Israel. ^15 (b)The Levites carried it on poles on their shoulders, as the Lord had commanded through Moses.

¹⁶ David commanded the leaders of the Levites to assign various Levites to sing and to play joyful music on harps and cymbals. ^17-21 From the clans of singers they chose the following men to play the brass cymbals: Heman son of Joel, his relative Asaph son of Berechiah, and Ethan son of Kushaiah, of the clan of Merari. To assist them they chose the following Levites to play the high-pitched harps: Zechariah, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah.

To play the low-pitched harps they chose the following Levites: Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Azaziah, and the Temple guards, Obed Edom and Jeiel.

²² Because of his skill in music Chenaniah was chosen to be in charge of the levitical musicians. ^23-24 Berechiah and Elkanah, along with Obed Edom and Jehiah, were chosen as guards for the Covenant Box. The priests Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer were chosen to blow trumpets in front of the Covenant Box.

Moving the Covenant Box to Jerusalem^(c)

²⁵ So King David, the leaders of Israel, and the military commanders went to the house of Obed Edom to get the Covenant Box, and they had a great celebration. ²⁶ They sacrificed seven bulls and seven sheep, to make sure that God would help the Levites who were carrying the Covenant Box. ²⁷ David was wearing a robe made of the finest linen, and so were the musicians, Chenaniah their leader, and the Levites who carried the Box. David also wore a linen ephod. ²⁸ So all the Israelites accompanied the Covenant Box up to Jerusalem with shouts of joy, the sound of trumpets, horns, and cymbals, and the music of harps.

²⁹ As the Box was being brought into the city, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked out of the window and saw King David dancing and leaping for joy, and she was disgusted with him.